24 Oct 2024

Spiffy New Editions for The Rapture Effect

posted in: audiobooks, cover art, my books, new editions | 0

I’ve been working on a new print edition of The Rapture Effect—the first print release since the original Tor publication. Following The Infinity Link, The Rapture Effect was my second long novel, about an interstellar war being waged by an AI, which now wants to find a way to stop it. The new print version is nearly ready, along with a reformatted ebook edition. Even better, principal recording has wrapped on a new audiobook—narrated by Stefan Rudnicki. This should really rev your engines. The old audiobook currently in the Audible store is not at all what it should have been, and it will soon be going away. The new version will get wide distribution.

To celebrate all this, I hereby present a brand-new cover*, with wonderful graphics magic by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff. She found a way to weave a whole new fabric from a collection of images I sent her way. I hope you like it. Yes, this is a cover reveal!

All this should be breaking free in the next few weeks. Check back for updates.

*BTW, I love the old cover, with art by David Mattingly. But it’s had a good, long run, and its sales mojo has sort of run out of steam. It will be retired with honors.

22 Oct 2024

Boston Lights at the Franklin Park Zoo

posted in: art, events, personal news | 0

Recently we went with a friend of Allysen’s to see this remarkable installation of art at Boston’s Franklin Park Zoo. It was spectacular, an hour-long walk through the grounds of the zoo, winding past a continuing display of gorgeously lit fabric-covered, wire-frame sculptures, many of them animated. It was mesmerizing, and a remarkable achievement by the artists who created it. Here are a few of the highlights:

We didn’t see any orgs, that is, living zoo animals. I asked about it as we were leaving, because I thought maybe they had all been moved to another facility for the time being. But no, I was told, they were all just asleep in their enclosures—apparently uninterested in the fairyland just outside their doors!

14 Oct 2024

Panglor Flies Free

posted in: specials, Star Rigger Universe | 2

I’ve got a promotion scheduled for next week, but in preparation, I’ve set a few prices down ahead of time. So why wait? Panglor, the first book in the Star Rigger Universe, is FREE for a limited time in your favorite ebook store. And a couple of other Star Rigger books* are marked down for the ride, as well.

Why make a book free? Clearly, in hopes that people will give it a try, decide they like it, and buy some more of my books that aren’t free. That’s no secret. But does it work? Well, every sale is different, and some work better than others. But my experience has been that more often than not, I come out ahead, even when I’m spending some hundreds of dollars to run an ad at Bookbub. And even if I don’t earn a profit in dollars, I’m finding new readers for the books, and that’s a gain all by itself. So go ahead—prove me right!

The good folks at eBookDaily.com have picked up on the deal and created their own promotional page, so here’s their link for the Kindle edition:

I've been featured on eBookDaily

*Oh, Star Rigger’s Way and Dragons in the Stars are both discounted for the same brief period, in most major stores.

5 Oct 2024

Houston, We Have a Problem

posted in: Adventures with the Mothership, writing retreats | 0

A couple of hours after I posted about my retreat in the Mothership, I heard a loud bang, followed by the sound of running water. What the–? At first I thought it was something outside. Then I saw the water pouring out from under the kitchen sink counter, spreading across the floor…

I ran outside to shut the water off, and then started pulling things apart. Drawers full of dishes, full of water, too. What a mess. All I could tell for sure was that the water had come from under the kitchen faucet. I spent about two hours mopping it all up. Finally, about midnight, I sat down with a heavy sigh to figure out what to do next. Sproingggg! The window shade beside me abruptly unrolled all the way to its end. Is this a sign?

Next morning, I established that both water pipes to the kitchen faucet had popped loose as one and started pouring water into the space inside the cabinet. Some disassembly later, I found that the plastic connectors on the underside of the faucet had cracked and let go. With no separate shut-off valves to the sink, I was sunk. My water system was kacked until I could get a replacement faucet. A few phone calls later, I knew there were none to be had on the Cape. A few hours later, I packed it in and headed home.

But not without a final bike ride to the beach and some time contemplating the surf rolling in. Bright side: While sitting there, I found (I hope) the solution to the plot problem that had been eluding me, and I wrote a couple of pages on that before I broke camp for home.

Here’s a glimpse of the better side of the retreat…

2 Oct 2024

Writing Retreat Fall 2024

posted in: Adventures with the Mothership, writing retreats | 2

It’s been a while since I’ve gotten away on a retreat to bang heads with my book—I mean, commune with nature and become one with my book. Well, one or the other. I’m in the Mothership on Cape Cod, but farther out than I usually go, this time near the National Seashore, and also First Encounter Beach, above. The campground literally borders the Cape Cod Rail Trail, so it’s a perfect spot for biking. (Biking defined as peddling some and letting the electric motor keep me moving, and up over the hills.) The connection with the book is coming slowly, but not not at all. Remember those slow watch movement wheels I mentioned a while back? Like that.

Sadly, with my breathing issues, I can no longer enjoy the smell of wood smoke from campfires, much less sit next to one. In fact, I have to retreat into the van when my nose starts noticing a new one. This is a grave loss.

I just noticed that when I sit in my man cave in the back of the Mothership, there’s a robot face staring at me from the cab up front. I think it’s friendly.

27 Sep 2024

“Rey’s Theme,” from Space

posted in: John Williams, live music, music, space, Star Wars | 0

I would have missed this wonderful video if my friend Michael Daugherty hadn’t alerted me to it. Aboard the SpaceX Polaris Dawn spacecraft, astronaut Sarah Gillis played “Rey’s Theme” from Star Wars on her violin, accompanied by orchestras and ensembles of young musicians from locations all around the world. Sit back for a few and enjoy it.

If it doesn’t display properly, try it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD1ixTr4JWY

 

4 Sep 2024

Pulmonary Fibrosis Update

posted in: personal news, Pulmonary Fibrosis | 2

I said I’d post from time to time on how I’m doing, health-wise. I guess it’s about that time. I just had my semi-annual visit with my pulmonologist, complete with the usual PFT (pulmonary function tests), to see how well my lungs are breathing. The answer is, almost as well as this time last year. I am reasonably stable, which with pulmonary fibrosis is the best outcome you can expect with the treatments now available.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed. The Chinese herbal treatment I’m on is reported to have helped several other PF patients get measurably better, and of course that’s what I wanted, as well. But I don’t know the details of the other patients.

My doc was pleased that I’m doing as well as I am. We discussed the Chinese herbs, and when I said the main definite benefit seems to be improved energy, she assessed that as a win and suggested I keep taking them. We talked about some new drugs coming along in clinical trials; there’s one she’s excited about, which offers the hope—no, not of a cure—but of real stability and the halt of decline. I said how soon, and she said it was being fast-tracked with two simultaneous trials, and if the tests prove out, it could be available in a year or two. Now I’m excited about it.

Now, if only they had something to keep me and my family from tripping over the damn oxygen hose all the time! What we exos have to put up with, carrying our own atmospheres around with us!

30 Aug 2024

What Is That Barely Perceptible Ticking?

posted in: creativity, The Chaos Chronicles, work in progress, writing | 6

Is it a time bomb? No? My heart? Could be, but no.

It sounds like an exceedingly slow watch movement. Tick…………… tick…………… Like my watch with a clear crystal on the back, where I can see the little wheel ticking the seconds. This is that, but slowed wayyyyy down in a demonstration of relativistic time dilation.

It’s the sound of my brain, working out the details of the book I sometimes call The Masters of Shipworld, but usually just the book. For a period I will call a very long time, I felt almost no forward movement. I was frozen in time, caught in the event horizon of a creative black hole. Sometimes I’ve thought of it as spinning my wheels. Sometimes I’ve thought of it as being lost in the wilderness. But now I think I have it. The watch movement of my subconscious has creaked into motion. Don’t stare at it, or it’ll stop; it only ticks when you’re not looking. Each tick is me snapping my fingers and going, “Yes! Of course!” as a new plot or character point suddenly comes into focus. It’s not always a big point. Usually it’s some little thing that makes me wonder why I didn’t think of it sooner. But they’re accumulating.

The gears are moving, even if you can’t see it happening.

29 Aug 2024

Perfect Day for Walden Pond

posted in: nature, personal news | 1

I took the Mothership out for a spin today, just to run it. I had no real destination in mind—maybe Wegmans, maybe Costco, maybe nowhere. Instead, the road led me to Walden Pond. What a beautiful end-of-summer day for it.

 

22 Aug 2024

Passion, Compassion, and Hope

posted in: public affairs | 1

My first thought was, man, I didn’t know Michelle Obama was such a powerful speaker! Nail on the head, over and over. Beneath my stoic exterior, I was jumping up and down just like all those people at the Democratic convention. And then… man, I had forgotten what a great orator Barack Obama could be! Whoo! Color me excited, and hopeful. And the next night… Oprah? I had no idea! All these people, hitting it squarely: Sanity and decency and honesty and civility and compassion can return to our national discourse. I can have hope again!

It almost doesn’t matter what policies the candidates offer. (Okay, an exaggeration. Of course it matters. Still…) What matters most is the choice of character. Do we choose leaders who promote hope or fear? Belittlement or lifting up? Truth or lies? Common sense or conspiracy craziness?

Kudos to President Biden for getting some amazing work done (even if he screwed up on Israel and Gaza), and then in the end setting his own ambitions aside to pass the torch. Quite a contrast with [see Jan. 6, 2021]. A lot can happen between now and November, I know. But for the first time in a long time, I am hopeful.

And Kamala hasn’t even given her acceptance speech yet.

*AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite

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